THE MYTH OF "EL DORADO"

During the 16th century, with hopes that they would find a mythic gilded man (“El Dorado”) and his golden kingdom, various European states pursued numerous failed expeditions into New Granada (present-day Colombia), New Andalucía (present-day Venezuela), and Guiana.

The myth of El Dorado grew in part from a religious ritual practiced by an Indian tribe that lived in the Bogotá highlands during the late 15th century. Annually the tribe gathered to witness the tribal chief plunge himself into the center of Lake Guatavita as part of a symbolic cleansing process.

The act made for a spectacular image as the lake washed away the coat of gold powder that the chief’s attendants ritualistically applied to his nude body. Sometime before the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the New World, another tribe invaded and overpowered the group of Indians who practiced this ritual. Nevertheless, years later, long after the last ceremony at Lake Guatavita, the story of the gilded man (“El Dorado”) and his city, also called “El Dorado,” survived as folklore. Indians and Europeans exaggerated details and added embellishments over time. Before long rumors transformed the original ritual into a spectacular tale of a golden city whose palaces, streets, and nobility all demonstrated the mark of gold and wealth.

During the first half of the 16th century, the Spanish solidified their sphere of influence in the Western Hemisphere and looked in particular toward the lands of the Caribbean as a tropical paradise, rich in mines and a source of slave labor. Then, in 1533, when Francisco Pizarro led men into Peru, the Native legend of El Dorado became known to Europeans for the first time.

Pizarro’s invasion of their homeland forced many Inca to retreat into the jungle. The Spanish, believing rumors that the dissidents carried with them much treasure, opted to pursue them. Ultimately, the Spanish thought they would follow the runaway Indians east until reaching the magnificent, ancestral home of the Inca, Paytiti. By then, the Spanish had also heard from an Indian messenger of another impressive kingdom in the east. For his Spanish listeners, the messenger, arriving in Peru just after the fall of the Incan empire, described the mythical empire of El Dorado.

In the beginning, one expedition after another set out for the fabled kingdom to the east of Bogotá. Over the course of five years, from 1536 to 1541, six major Spanish expeditions, along with many other smaller efforts, set out for the interior from Venezuela. Hopeful and lusting for gold and instant wealth, each mission set out in search of the gilded man and his city. In turn, each met failure, either through absolute exhaustion of resources and men or through death. Disease, exposure to severe elements, starvation, and aggressive Indian groups were but some of the obstacles encountered. The men that formed one expedition, for example, encountered such grave difficulties that they reverted to cannibalism and other desperate measures. This mission, led by Francisco Pizarro’s half brother, Gonzalo Pizarro, suffered from a greedy leader who abandoned his main force of men, opting to seek out and claim El Dorado as his own.

The most notorious El Dorado hunt occurred in 1561, when a band of ruffians found themselves in a desperate position in the jungles of Venezuela. Not long after the expedition began, the commander and his mistress met their ends as part of a bloody mutiny. Lope de Aguirre, the new leader of the troops, suffered from mental instability. After killing many of his own men, Aguirre ordered an unprovoked attack on the Spanish settlement on Margarita Island. The atrocities at Margarita motivated Spanish authorities to order the capture of Aguirre. Neither Aguirre nor his men realized their hopes of reaching El Dorado as another force of Spaniards brought about their demise in a brutal struggle.

In time, optimism sank, and although Spanish expeditions in search of El Dorado continued throughout the 16th century, dogged determination to find the city of gold replaced jovial anticipation. With each mission new rumors surfaced that further contributed to the allure of El Dorado. Along the way Spaniards encountered various groups of Indians who eagerly assisted the gold seekers by clarifying the supposed route to the city of gold. In addition, the viceroy of Peru provided encouragement for quests to El Dorado, particularly for those persons with a criminal or otherwise questionable background.

Eventually, vast numbers of unsuccessful missions suggested to many Spaniards that the actual location of El Dorado lay deeper within the unexplored territory of the interior. Then, in 1580, the conquistador Don Antonio de Berrio inherited the estates of his wife’s wealthy uncle, Gonzalo Ximénez de Quesada. Ximénez had stipulated in his will that Berrio, as the heir, must use a portion of the estate’s income to finance the search for El Dorado. In 1592 Berrio established the first Spanish colony in Trinidad. From this base he pursued the hunt for the fabled city of gold for 15 years, moving farther into the interior mainland than any previous expedition. Along the way he experienced great losses due to disease, hostile Indians, and other chance difficulties.

Just before his death, Berrio succeeded in locating a lake, boxed in by seemingly impassable mountains, that he believed to be the golden lake so central to the legend of El Dorado. Berrio was even more intrigued to learn that a powerful group of Indians had settled on the lake 20 years earlier. Unfortunately, Berrio did not live to realize that Carib lived on the lake, not the Inca who fled Peru two decades before, and that there was no gilded man and no golden empire.

In 1595 the English joined the hunt for El Dorado with Sir Walter Ralegh leading the way. Ralegh used the fabled gilded man and his golden city as a tactic to acquire the necessary men and financial backing to support his interests in the Caribbean. Whether Ralegh initially believed in the existence of El Dorado is unknown, but he felt that the English had to usurp Spanish hegemony in the so-called Golden Antilles. Once in the Caribbean, Ralegh attacked and crushed Berrio’s expedition, taking Berrio as hostage as the English continued their own search for gold.

During the late 16th and early 17th centuries, Ralegh searched for gold in Guiana and elsewhere in the New World. Although he initially refused to give in to the exaggerations and fantastic stories, at various times he fell victim to the myth of El Dorado, believing in the possibility of finding the elusive city. After Ralegh the English made other attempts to locate El Dorado. During the late 17th century the Scots, too, searched for the city of gold. Until its existence was finally disproved two centuries later, maps included references to the fabled city.

Written by Kimberly Sambol-Tosco in "Encyclopedia of American History" Facts on File, New York, 2010, revised edition, editor in chief Owen Lancer, excerpts pp.118-119, volume I. Digitized, adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.